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In today’s article, we will learn about 8 passive income stream options.  We will also try to understand how difficult it is to build each of these streams and what are some key points you should keep in mind while executing each of these options. Each of these options can easily fetch you 10K per month if you put in the effort. Before we deep dive into these options, let us first understand what passive income means. We often assume that passive income means to make money in our sleep, i.e. we have created a system which generates money for us every single month.  Now, this might be true in some cases. An example could be- you have rented your property. In this scenario, you don’t have to actively work to make money, maybe except remind your tenant that their rent is due. 🙂 A more sensible definition of passive income would be to create a process/system where you do not have to actively invest your time to earn money. Another definition could be to create a system where you are exchanging value for money. An example here could be to create a course. You could teach a skill you are exceptionally good at to other folks. Now, here are the 8 passive income stream options: 1. Stock market investing So, how do you make passive income from the stock market? You invest a certain amount of money, and there is an appreciation of the stock that takes place. This is the first way. The second way is through dividends. Companies like ITC, HUL, Nestle pay dividends from time to time, so this can become a sustainable cash flow income for you.  Stock market is a mechanism where you decide how much time you want to invest into it. However for people like us, who are retail investors, the aim should be to become a long time investor and to not end up trading our active time for money. To make stock market investing a passive source of income, become an investor and not a trader. 2. YouTube You can make money through YouTube by 3 ways: i. Adsense revenue Usually you are shown ads just before YT videos. These ads generate an income for the creators. But this feature gets activated only when you, as a creator, have at least 4000 watch hours and 1000 subscribers. ii. Brand sponsorships A baseline number of subscribers to get brand deals would be somewhere around 20-25K subscribers. iii. Selling digital products or community memberships Some key tips to start a YT channel: i. Pick a niche you are extremely, extremely passionate about. ii. You might get next to nil traction in the first few months of your YouTube journey. If you do not enjoy the process, you will have an extremely hard time to build this source of income. iii. You can first start making reels on IG, and then eventually shift to YT. This way you will understand the process of making videos. And, it is easier to make shorter videos compared to longer videos. 3. Selling digital products In this case, you need to think about the value add approach. If you are selling your course at Rs. 10K, but the audience does not seem to find it worth its price, you might want to consider repricing the course. A simple  mathematical equation you must keep in mind is  Price x Quantity = Money you make If you want to make 10K through your digital product, and if it is priced at 500, you will have to sell it to at least 20 people. On the other hand if it is 10K, you have to sell it to only 1 person. A problem that you might face is distribution of your digital product.  If you do not have a long standing social media presence on platforms like LinkedIn, IG or YT, your courses might not be that easily discovered and might not get a lot of traction. In such a scenario you will have to look for alternative marketing methods. 4. NFTs Of course, for retail investors, creating and monetising an NFT is not an easy task, but this is an option that will become more popular as the world grows. 5. Writing books You make passive income from books through royalties. You make roughly 10-20% royalty for every book that you sell. This is because the distributors and publishers take a lot of commission. In India, making 10K per month through a book can be a difficult task. But if you market your book well and everyone is talking about it, and it genuinely is a good book, it definitely can be a good source of passive income. 6. Podcasts Starting a podcast is super easy. All you need is a mic, and you’re done. You can use Anchor to start your podcast. You can make money through podcasts by getting sponsorships. It can be quite difficult for newcomers to monetize their podcasts. You’d require a minimum of 1500 downloads to be eligible for a sponsorship. 7. Paid memberships If you are exceptionally good at writing you can create your weekly newsletter and then eventually ask people to support you on platforms like Patreon, where you can create exclusive content just for paid subscribers. This can be a hard way to earn passive income, especially in a country like India, where people are not very willing to pay for content. 8. Angel investing This is a slightly more advanced stream of income. It might not necessarily be a passive source of income for often the founders seek support from the investors. To be an angel investor, you must know about businesses. You should have experience in building your own businesses and you must also be aware of the value you can add to the business. Currently, start-ups are very interested in getting good people on board who can help them accelerate their growth. If you as a retail

Let me share two short stories with you. Story #1: I graduated from INSEAD in 2015 and then got a job at Dalberg. Now, Dalberg is one of the most elite consulting firms and recruits very few candidates every year. You might think that I got a job at Dalberg owing to the brand name of INSEAD. You might be wrong here. I got a job at Dalberg because I had prepared extensively for my job interview. I had: Solved over 1000 cases. Prepared my cover letter and resume in an elaborate manner. Researched a lot about this job. So, a lot of things went into me getting a job at Dalberg. It was not solely due to my MBA. Story #2: This story is about a friend who graduated along with me from INSEAD. He ended up coming back to India and starting his career. Now you must wonder how scary it might be to invest so much time and money into an MBA at INSEAD, only to come back to India. Again, you are wrong here. He ended up working at a top consulting firm in India with a package close to 50L in the Delhi office. The point I am trying to portray through these two stories is that: People assume an MBA to be a magic bullet or Sometimes they assume that making a massive investment into an MBA abroad only to come back to India might be detrimental to your career. Both these perspectives are incorrect. In this read, I am going to discuss 5 specific points to help you assess whether an MBA is for you or not.  What is the value of an MBA? There are two primary benefits of doing an MBA.  Network effect When you go to an elite business school like Harvard, Wharton, or INSEAD, you build a massive network. This network can help you: Seek mentorship from your alum. Ask for job favours/internal referrals. Ask for business/investor advice. Signalling effect If you are an IIM, Ahmedabad graduate, it indicates to recruiters that you are an intelligent person. They might not even look at your CV, simply because you have the IIM brand on it. Should you do an MBA? If your objective is to grow in your corporate career, MBA is a wonderful degree. If you want to work in firms like Bain, McKinsey and BCG, it is almost mandatory to have an MBA. Majority of these consulting firms actually send their analysts/junior-level employees to pursue a master’s degree, whether it be an MBA or MPP. You will also notice that the people at the top echelons of companies like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BCG, Bain, McKinsey, have done their MBAs. What if I want to become an entrepreneur? Shttps://wisdomhatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/lukas-blazek-UAvYasdkzq8-unsplash-scaled-2.jpgng my personal story, after working in strategy consulting, I started a couple of my own ventures, which did fairly well. In addition to the networking effect my MBA gave me, it also helped me to explore the option of going to my professor and refining my business plan. There was an ecosystem at INSEAD where the entire community helped me. Another option that one can explore is to leverage their school’s network. The provision of an incubation centre or angel investor network at your school can be of massive help to raise funds for one’s start-up. Besides this, there are also some indirect benefits of an MBA program for an entrepreneur as well.  For example, I came from a public policy consulting background. I did not have a lot of sense about how operations or marketing worked. By taking courses, electives and experiential learning programs at INSEAD, I was able to build the subject matter knowledge, which now helps me grow as an entrepreneur on an everyday basis. Is an MBA still relevant? There are so many options to take online courses and pursue alternative degrees like MiM. Let me compare a real world MBA to an online MBA. The primary advantage of pursuing an MBA offline is the signalling effect. When you learn that I am from INSEAD, you naturally might take my words more seriously and consider me to be a credible person. Similarly, learning someone graduated from IIM might automatically signal to you that since this person put in so much effort in terms of getting into this elite institution, he/she might have some useful perspective to share. The second point is that you won’t get advantage of the networking effect in an online MBA. If you pursue an online MBA from Darden, you won’t get access to Darden’s alumni network. Will an MBA benefit you? There is no other degree in the world which is discussed as much as an MBA. But again, you need to do a deeper analysis and keep it goal oriented. If your goal is to just learn new things, then MBA might not be the right option. On the flip side, if your goal is to grow your network in the long term or create that signalling effect and brand value on your CV, then an MBA might be very useful. Comparison of an MBA with technical degrees. Comparing an MBA to a technical degree will be like comparing apples to oranges.  If you want to work as a UI/UX developer and want to pursue an MS, that career track cannot be compared with an MBA career track where people usually become product/program managers at Google/Amazon. You need to understand what role you are aiming for. If you are aiming for technical roles, an MS might be better. If you are more keen on a business related degree, an MBA is much more useful from that perspective.  Personal development through an MBA. When you go to a business school, you don’t necessarily just develop core business skills like operations, finance, and marketing. You also end up building lifelong friendships that impact your perspective.  You meet people from all across the globe, especially when you are graduating from abroad. You

In today’s social media chatter, a lot of people are of the belief that degrees are dead. There is absolutely no point in completing your education wasting your time doing so and then getting a degree The question might arise- Should I even consider going to university in this day and age? Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, dropped out of Harvard. Mukesh Ambani dropped out of Stanford. So what is the point of going to college? First and foremost, it is important to note that these people had the calibre to get into these esteemed institutions. So that itself calls for credit. What people are really trying to say is that- today, skills are more important than a degree.  On one hand people believe that universities, degrees and resume building are dead. There is no point investing your energy into building a resume. This perspective is incorrect. On the flipside, assuming just because you are from a good undergrad program, your life is set, is also wrong. This article systematically analyzes the value of going to a good university/building a good resume. Both sides of the argument will be looked upon. Now, what is the importance of having a very strong resume? It generates something called a signalling effect. It simply means that a strong resume acts as a pull factor. For example, I graduated from INSEAD, and it being a good business school, pulled a lot of brands to its campus for recruitment. When I moved ahead in my career, I started different ventures. A lot of investors started reaching out to us because of the pull factor INSEAD brought with it. Although I can’t credit INSEAD entirely for the aforementioned points, it did play a critical role in my career in terms of: Helping me get a job. Develop a network. Pulling investors to me when I started my ventures. Can a pull factor be built only by going to a top tier college or working at top tier firms like Dalberg and BCG? The short answer is no. There is an alternative method of creating this pull factor, which is skill development. If you put in a lot of effort into honing your skills, you might be able to build that pull factor. But in order for your skills to become a pull factor, you need to be well-known. Let’s say you started your YouTube journey and people really admire the way you bring forth your thoughts and analyse things. It will take a significant amount of time for you to build a following. Only then will you be able to create a pull-factor. If you have very strong brands on your CV in terms of: Internships you have done. Jobs you have done. Undergraduate/graduate programs you have pursued. All these brand indicators act as a pull-factor. Going to a top university or working with top brands helps you immensely in developing this pull-effect. You can also do this all by yourself by working really hard, but it will take you time. Here is a relevant example to consolidate the point above- In certain industries like private equity, banking, and management consulting, people are pressed on time. They cannot dedicate more than 30-60 seconds to analyse your resume. The resumes are scanned at a very brisk pace.  Now, what do recruiters look for when they scan through a resume? They will look for a strong signalling effect. If you don’t have brands, that is okay. But you need to demonstrate through your work how you have added massive value to the organisation you’ve been a part of. Trying to show that you have a very impressive skill-set becomes a hard thing to do if a person is not spending enough time analysing your resume. If I have a bad resume, what should I be doing? Let’s say you are in your first year of college and you have not performed well in your exams, not participated in any extracurricular activities and are attending a very low ranked institution. It is okay. It is not the end of the world. One thing you could do is get a high standardised test score. A 750 on your GMAT would act as a positive signalling effect when you are scouting for internships. Remember, that there are multiple avenues for you to build your profile. Try gaining international exposure. Work on a research paper with your professor. Look for strong internships. If you are in your final year and have completely messed up your undergrad, you have no option but to build your skill-set first. Try becoming really adept at something. It could be: Public speaking Writing Coding ML/AI Become a specialist in a certain domain.  But if you are not from a good college and also refuse to develop skills, you will not be able to build a signalling effect for yourself, which could prove to be immensely detrimental in the longer run.

People often wonder what are the key lessons that students from top MBA programs like Harvard, INSEAD, and Stanford learn. Peter Robinson, a Stanford MBA graduate, has written a book named “Snapshots from Hell”. One very fascinating story from that book encapsulates what it is like to study in a top tier business school. It goes like this-  A Stanford Professor said that there can be only 2 types of students in a Stanford MBA classroom.  Type A- They do all the homework, assignments and are extremely diligent. Type B- They do not come to class, and spend all their time on the golf course hitting golf balls. But they both graduate with similar types of jobs. This happens because a top tier MBA program gives you two things. An excellent brand value. It allows you to learn skills outside the classroom as well. We’re slowly moving towards a world where what we learn outside the classroom holds ten times more significance than what we learn inside the classroom. In this short read, you will be acquainted with five specific skills that one cultivates in these top MBA programs. These are skills you absolutely have to learn if you want to create opportunities for yourself, do well in your career and make money.  You will also find links to relevant resources you can refer to, to develop the discussed skills. 🙂 Effective communication Effective communication does NOT mean that your English should be extremely good.  It simply means that if I say 10 things to you, you should at least be able to understand 9 things. Now, what are some tips you can follow to improve your communication skills? The #1 lesson that I learnt at INSEAD, from my Communications Professor, who was an ex-BBC journalist, was- Always use structures while communicating. Make sure what you say is coherent and has a flow. For example, while introducing yourself, begin from start to end. (Which city did you grow up in?, college?, work experience?). The #2 lesson was- Control the pace at which you speak.  Indians and Chinese tend to talk very fast. When you talk to people from all over the globe, differences in accents can cause a communication gap. An Italian, Portuguese or a Spanish person might not be able to catch a lot of information you’re giving them if you talk in a brisk tone. And lastly, #3 lesson is- build confidence. Put yourself into unfamiliar situations. Example- Go and talk on a stage. A high stress environment like this will challenge you to improve your communication skills. Here is a link to my mini-course on effective communication-  Building a Network  Ever since Zoom has come into the picture, post pandemic, it has become super easy to network with people. In-person meets have been replaced by video chats. Hence, it has become all the more important to become a good net-worker.  If you don’t network, an average net-worker can easily get 20-30 meetings in a month, and you will lose out in a big way. But how can one you improve your networking skills? Here are some key points you should remember when you want to connect with a person- Build a relationship with that person. Now, how to do that?  You must focus on creating a value-add approach. If the person is active on social-media, check out his/her latest posts. Engage in a meaningful manner. If you have viable points to add to what they’ve said, do so. Continue doing this for a significant period of time. Now, when you drop a LinkedIn request or an email to this person, they will recall your name. This increases the chances that they will respond to your request. Do not ask for a favour directly.  Let’s say, you want to network with XYZ, You can send a note akin to this- Hey XYZ, I have been engaging with your posts for the last five months. It has been an enriching experience reading all your posts and learning from you. I see that you’re working as an entrepreneur and there must be a lot of help that you might need. I am a website designer. Is there anyway that I can work with you or volunteer on these specific points (mention the points in bullets), etc. Be very clear and direct. Show them how you can add value to their work that will allow you to sustain a meaningful relationship with them. Business Problem Solving  Whether it is marketing, finance, or operations. Every business has multiple angles and functions.  Business schools teach you how to analyse businesses. This is done through case studies. At HBS, you are given a case to study. You learn things online and then come to class and discuss the case with your peers and teacher.  Now, you can’t replicate this ecosystem around you on your own. But you can get access to some of these cases. You can explore online resources like Harvard Business Review, The Economist, BCG Insights, or McKinsey Quarterly.  Exposure to such content will help you build your business analytical skills.  Structured Thinking If you want to do really well in your career, you must have the ability to think in structures and buckets.  Structured thinking simply means the ability to break apart a problem into simple thinking frameworks.  Look at this graphic below to understand the essence of structured thinking: How can you develop this skill?  Go online and type Kellogg Case Study book or NCR Case Study book. You can download them and read through them. This will allow you to develop the fundamentals of structured thinking.  The 80-20 Principle To generate 80% of the results, you only need to put in 20% of the effort. A classic example is- You have only three days until your final exam and you have not studied anything. What do you do? The smartest thing to do would be to solve the last 10 years question papers. If you try reading all